Ths article was first printed in the Aug. 14 edition of the Palo Alto Daily Post. To stay up to date on local news, pick up a copy every day.
BY AMELIA BISCARDI
Daily Post Staff Writer
Some Mid-Peninsula residents are seeing their summer water bills spike by $200 to $300 due to a new price tier added by Cal Water.
People using over 9,724 gallons, or 13 cubic feet, with this new system saw their bill double.
Last year to pay for 13 cubic feet, it was $13.42, this year the price has jumped to $25.72.
Cal Water has stated that residents will see on average a 1.8% increase. However that number comes from the median water usage in 2021, when the new tier didn’t exist. This rate change is affecting San Carlos, San Mateo and South San Francisco, all are a part of Cal Water’s Bayshore District.
San Carlos resident Ken Castle, 75, was greeted with a $200 surprise when he opened his July water bill.
Castle’s bill doubled from the previous year, going from around $200 in July 2023 to around $400 this year.
“It’s eclipsing the electric bills,” Castle said in an interview. “Who would think that would happen?”
The rate increases Cal Water requested in July 2021 to begin 2023 were approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in the spring and started on June 1, according to Cal Water spokesman Kevin McCusker.
Another reason residents are seeing higher bills, is due to what he called a “pancaking effect,” McCusker said: the rate hikes from 2023 and 2024 both were lumped into the June 2024 bill. In an ideal world, according to McCusker, the Public Utilities Commission would have approved the increase sooner, so the rate would not have been combined all at once.
McCusker explained that they have been readjusting rates to make it more affordable for those using less water. However in readjusting the lower rates, other rates were raised, in some cases doubled, to balance things out.
When residents received the July bill, many were hit with sticker shock. San Carlos residents took to social media to complain about the high bills. A handful of residents showed up at the San Carlos City Council meeting on Monday to complain about the rate hikes.
After receiving the high bill, Castle made three calls to CalWater, had his property checked by a plumber, his gardener and a Cal Water representative.
When he pulled up the meter lid and dusted off the reader, Castle, his plumber and the Cal Water representative didn’t notice a leak.
Joanne Trefcer, 73, a San Carlos resident of 47 years got a surprise with her June and July bills. Trefcer’s bills went from around $100 in April to around $600 in July.
“I had a heart attack,” Trefcer told the Post. “I called immediately and said there is something wrong.”
Once on the phone, the customer service worker told her that he had been fielding calls like hers all day.
As Trefcer started asking around and found Castle and others, she wondered why no one had seen this increase coming.
McCusker said Cal Water alerts residents of upcoming bill changes by giving out notices when they file with the Public Utilities Commission, as well as when the public comment period is available for the bill change. Before the change goes into effect, McCusker said there was information on a previous bill about the rate increase.
McCusker said beginning any rate change in January allows for residents to get used to the change, and it evens out the high water consumption of the summer months.
“It is better for customers to get small incremental changes,” McCusker said.
San Carlos City Council on Monday (Aug. 12) heard from four residents, including Castle and Trefcer, about the rate changes. Vice Mayor Sara McDowell had added the item to the agenda after getting many emails from upset residents about the rate change.
Council unanimously agreed to place this issue on a future agenda and ask Cal Water and the Public Utilities Commission to come present.
Mayor John Dugan also added that he would also want to broaden the conversation to find what role the city plays with utilities.
“I think that the city should push to hold Cal Water accountable for reasonable rates,” San Carlos resident Justin Grant said. “Consider options for connecting to Mid-Peninsula Water District, which seems to be running a much more reasonable water utility and is obviously available in the neighboring city of Belmont.”
Resident Stephen Wexler also added that he believes the new tier system is tough on the wallets of larger families.
“When I opened our June water bill, my jaw dropped,” Wexler said. “Our bill had almost doubled from the previous month. I initially assumed that there must have been a meter misread, which has happened before, but no, it turned out Cal Water had begun the largest rate increase in history. They had implemented a ridiculous new tiering system for their Bayshore district that unfairly punishes those with larger households or higher water usage.”
9k gallons is not 13 cubic feet